Groupware, which is also sometimes called collaborative computing or collaborative information-processing, generally involves specialized, computer technology that is designed to promote efficiency by coordinating individual efforts within a group toward completion of a common task. The task that is the subject of the group's attention may be a shared-data object such as a document, a book, a production schedule, a computer program, a product design, or any other task that is represented by the organized expression of information. Construction of that expression is aided by the efforts of the group's multiple users and particularly by their simultaneous efforts.
A good example of this simultaneous construction is in the joint production of a new textbook. Multiple users simultaneously work together to make changes and available changes and additions, which can be in the form of text, graphics, and photographs, to each member of the production team, and informs all team members of the changes and additions so that they can best coordinate their joint efforts.
A computer network is typically the vehicle for coordinating the users' work with each user operating at a computer in the network. The subject of the work is often structured as one or more shared-data objects stored in memory accessible over the network. A shared-data object is one that is simultaneously accessible to multiple users over the network. Such data objects can include, for example, word-processing documents, design drawings, and spreadsheets. Users access the shared-data object via a groupware tool, such as a text-editor or data-base management facility.
A user accesses shared-data objects through the multi-user interface provided by the groupware tool. The interface typically includes a video monitor under the control of the user's local workstation, through which views of the shared-data objects are displayed. The interface is supported by software, allowing multiple simultaneous access to an object with the right to manipulate the contents of the object. Identical characteristics of one category of multi-user interface are referred to as the "What You See Is What I See" (WYSIWIS) concept. In split form, each user sees exactly the same thing, from the same view point, with each user being given apparent immediate rights to manipulate the shared object. The groupware tool transmits updates to each participant, allowing the participants to see what the group is doing as they do it.
A problem can arise when a user decides to save changes to the shared-data object. Since there is only one image of the shared-data object that multiple users are working on, when one user saves the object, all the changes made to the object (no matter which user made them) are saved. This means that some users may have made changes that they had no intention of saving, yet if another user performs a save operation, then the unintended changes will be saved anyway (perhaps without the maker of the changes even realizing it.)
Prior groupware tools typically provided two options upon exiting the tool: save-and-exit and exit-with-no-save. Unfortunately, even if the exiting user chooses exit-with-no-save, if other users are still accessing the shared-data object, then the changes the first user made are still present in the object, and will be made permanent if another user chooses to exercise the save-and-exit option.
Therefore, there is a need in collaborative processing to provide the user with the ability to save and discard that user's changes without affecting the changes made by others while still allowing all users to see the group's changes.